Democratic Revolution

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's left-center Democratic Revolution Party elected an interim president Saturday and announced it would hold a new election for its leadership in July, local media reported. Democratic Revolution was forced to annul its own March 14 election for party president and secretary-general due to widespread irregularities. The two leading nominees, Secretary-General Jesus Ortega and Sen. Amalia Garcia, had both claimed victory based on preliminary results. Congressman Pablo Gomez, a former leader in the 1968 student movement, will head Democratic Revolution for three months.

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- President Evo Morales said Friday that his close ally Fidel Castro advised him to shun arms for his populist cause and to instead change Bolivia through a democratic revolution similar to that led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The Cuban president, who once tried to spread armed revolt throughout South America, "never told me that you have to take up arms, never," Morales said Friday with Bolivian radio network Fides. Castro advised: 'Don't do what I did; don't have an armed uprising,' " Morales recalled.

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- President Evo Morales said Friday that his close ally Fidel Castro advised him to shun arms for his populist cause and to instead change Bolivia through a democratic revolution similar to that led by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The Cuban president, who once tried to spread armed revolt throughout South America, "never told me that you have to take up arms, never," Morales said Friday with Bolivian radio network Fides. Castro advised: 'Don't do what I did; don't have an armed uprising,' " Morales recalled.

WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush is the 10th U.S. president to hope for a democratic revolution in Cuba to replace Fidel Castro. Now it's somebody's job to make it happen. As coordinator of the U.S. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, Caleb McCarry doesn't use the words regime change. He wants Castro out, however, and makes no bones about the mission. "Obviously we hope the Cuban people will be free from the dictatorship as soon as possible," he said in his new office at the U.S. State Department.

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico - Hundreds of Mexican police firing tear gas stormed an opposition-run village in the troubled southern state of Chiapas and arrested 147 people, officials said. About 400 police raided the village of Nicolas Ruiz, 370 miles southeast of Mexico City, because the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution that governs the town had expelled 33 pro-ruling party families, state officials said. Villagers battled police briefly.

MEXICO CITY -- President-elect Vicente Fox offered Cabinet posts in his new government to leaders of the country's top left-wing party, but the offer was turned down. In an effort to include a party whose support he will need in Mexico's divided Congress, Fox proposed members of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution take second-tier Cabinet jobs in his administration that takes office Dec. 1.

MEXICO CITY - Pledging to stamp out corruption, former Mexico City Mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas was formally nominated Saturday as presidential candidate of the left-center Party of the Democratic Revolution. Cardenas spoke before a crowd of party supporters in the capital, at the formal launch of his third try for the presidency. Cardenas, candidate for a coalition called Alliance for Mexico that includes Mexico's small Labor Party as well as the PRD, trailed in the latest opinion polls.

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's main leftist party has annulled internal elections to choose a party president after deciding the March 14 ballot was marred by vote-rigging and corruption. ``We'll do it over again: clean, free and democratic elections,'' said Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the outgoing president of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, late Thursday. The PRD, the No. 2 party in Congress, attempted to select its leader democratically, but the election went badly and ended up staining the party's image.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE. A government supporter was killed Thursday in political violence in Mexico's western state of Michoacan, the government news agency Notimex reported. It said the victim, identified only as ''Adan N,'' was killed when he and other supporters of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party clashed with members of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution in the small town of Tuzantla. The death brought to four the number of people killed since the weekend. The violence follows local elections earlier this month in several western states.

MEXICO CITY - The leading conservative candidate for Mexico's 2000 presidential election said last week that hopes for a united opposition front against the country's ruling party were all but dead.Vicente Fox, the candidate for the National Action Party (PAN), said recent comments from leftist leader Cuauhtemoc Cardenas had made it clear to him that there would be no unified opposition candidacy.``I think [Cardenas's) position is clear and that chances are remote that he will contribute to the formation of a coalition,'' Fox was quoted as saying in the Mexico City daily La Jornada.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's highest electoral court Friday annulled the results of an October gubernatorial election in the oil-rich state of Tabasco, overturning a vote long plagued by fraud allegations, local radio reported. In a 4-2 ruling, Mexico's federal electoral tribunal ruled to overturn the Oct. 16 victory of Manuel Andrade of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the report said. Andrade eked out a razor-thin victory of some 8,000 votes over his nearest rival, Raul Ojeda of the Party of the Democratic Revolution.

MEXICO CITY -- President-elect Vicente Fox offered Cabinet posts in his new government to leaders of the country's top left-wing party, but the offer was turned down. In an effort to include a party whose support he will need in Mexico's divided Congress, Fox proposed members of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution take second-tier Cabinet jobs in his administration that takes office Dec. 1.

MEXICO CITY - Pledging to stamp out corruption, former Mexico City Mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas was formally nominated Saturday as presidential candidate of the left-center Party of the Democratic Revolution. Cardenas spoke before a crowd of party supporters in the capital, at the formal launch of his third try for the presidency. Cardenas, candidate for a coalition called Alliance for Mexico that includes Mexico's small Labor Party as well as the PRD, trailed in the latest opinion polls.

MEXICO CITY - The leading conservative candidate for Mexico's 2000 presidential election said last week that hopes for a united opposition front against the country's ruling party were all but dead.Vicente Fox, the candidate for the National Action Party (PAN), said recent comments from leftist leader Cuauhtemoc Cardenas had made it clear to him that there would be no unified opposition candidacy.``I think [Cardenas's) position is clear and that chances are remote that he will contribute to the formation of a coalition,'' Fox was quoted as saying in the Mexico City daily La Jornada.

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's left-center Democratic Revolution Party elected an interim president Saturday and announced it would hold a new election for its leadership in July, local media reported. Democratic Revolution was forced to annul its own March 14 election for party president and secretary-general due to widespread irregularities. The two leading nominees, Secretary-General Jesus Ortega and Sen. Amalia Garcia, had both claimed victory based on preliminary results. Congressman Pablo Gomez, a former leader in the 1968 student movement, will head Democratic Revolution for three months.

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's main leftist party has annulled internal elections to choose a party president after deciding the March 14 ballot was marred by vote-rigging and corruption. ``We'll do it over again: clean, free and democratic elections,'' said Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the outgoing president of the Party of the Democratic Revolution, late Thursday. The PRD, the No. 2 party in Congress, attempted to select its leader democratically, but the election went badly and ended up staining the party's image.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's highest electoral court Friday annulled the results of an October gubernatorial election in the oil-rich state of Tabasco, overturning a vote long plagued by fraud allegations, local radio reported. In a 4-2 ruling, Mexico's federal electoral tribunal ruled to overturn the Oct. 16 victory of Manuel Andrade of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the report said. Andrade eked out a razor-thin victory of some 8,000 votes over his nearest rival, Raul Ojeda of the Party of the Democratic Revolution.

WASHINGTON -- George W. Bush is the 10th U.S. president to hope for a democratic revolution in Cuba to replace Fidel Castro. Now it's somebody's job to make it happen. As coordinator of the U.S. Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, Caleb McCarry doesn't use the words regime change. He wants Castro out, however, and makes no bones about the mission. "Obviously we hope the Cuban people will be free from the dictatorship as soon as possible," he said in his new office at the U.S. State Department.

TUXTLA GUTIERREZ, Mexico - Hundreds of Mexican police firing tear gas stormed an opposition-run village in the troubled southern state of Chiapas and arrested 147 people, officials said. About 400 police raided the village of Nicolas Ruiz, 370 miles southeast of Mexico City, because the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution that governs the town had expelled 33 pro-ruling party families, state officials said. Villagers battled police briefly.

POLITICAL VIOLENCE. A government supporter was killed Thursday in political violence in Mexico's western state of Michoacan, the government news agency Notimex reported. It said the victim, identified only as ''Adan N,'' was killed when he and other supporters of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party clashed with members of the opposition Party of the Democratic Revolution in the small town of Tuzantla. The death brought to four the number of people killed since the weekend. The violence follows local elections earlier this month in several western states.